The recent technological developments are changing the methods of
access to information and interpersonal communication, in the context of
the emerging 'Information Society'. The ACTS AVANTI AC042 project 'Adaptive
and Adaptable interactions for Multimedia Telecommunications Applications'
aims to enable the integration of people with disabilities into this emerging
information environment, with main reference to issues related to the access
of information. The project is based on the universal design approach and
on the concepts of adaptability and adaptivity of information contents and
user-to- terminal interfaces and builds on the results of other related
R&D activities in Europe.

Developments in information technology and signal processing allow the
implementation of multimedia systems, where text, pictures and video can
be represented, stored and processed digitally. At the same time, telecommunications
networks are becoming computer-based and intelligent. Information technology
and telecommunications are substantially merging to produce a digital, intelligent
and broadband network, able to convey multimedia information, and accessible
using terminals that give concurrent access to information and interpersonal
communication. When people with disabilities are involved, these developments
can offer new important opportunities of socio-economic integration, but
may also create new barriers, increasing their segregation. Therefore, it
is necessary to analyse their possible impact and then produce the knowledge
necessary to develop an information society that is potentially accessible
to all its members, irrespective of their individual abilities.

The AVANTI project (1995-1998), under the technical responsibility of
the author (Prime Contractor: Alcatel Siette in Italy), is intended to solve
problems of access to information in an environment characterized by:

The project's aim is to develop a system which, transparently to the
users, looks for information of interest in databases containing complementary
data about the same application environment and presents it in a form adapted
to user capabilities, terminal and link. The users will interact with the
system as if they were navigating through a Web site. However, the system
will not contain real Web pages, but only empty models of pages whose contents
and presentation modalities are adapted to the users. Pages are filled in
real time with information retrieved from the connected databases and are
made available through user interfaces adapted at two levels:

interaction peripherals

interaction modalities.

The impact of multimediality on people with disabilities has already
been studied extensively under the responsibility of the author in the CEU
projects RACE IPSNI Integration of People with Special Needs in the Integrated
Broadband Network and RACE IPSNI II Access to Broadband Services and Applications
by People with Special Needs. In IPSNI, problems of access to multimedia
information have been pointed out, suggesting and testing solutions based
on the concepts of information redundancy and transduction from one media
to another (eg from text to speech and vice versa). Then, access to multimedia
terminals has been analysed, producing the model of an adaptable modular
multimedia terminal. In IPSNI II multimedia adapted services and applications
have been studied, emulated and practically demonstrated, considering media
exchanged during interpersonal communication and access to information and
the tasks to be carried out during interaction.

It is clear that the implementation of suitable user-to-terminal interfaces
is particularly critical for people with disabilities. In the AVANTI project,
the approach developed in the CEU project TIDE ACCESS Development Platform
for Unified ACCESS to Enabling Environments, under the responsibility of
the author, are being used. This is based on tools which allow the description,
at an abstract level, of the dialogue between the user and the application
and the automatic generation of adapted interfaces that use different interaction
technologies.

Two field trials (one in Italy and one in Finland) are currently being
set up in the the context of AVANTI project, to test the applications dealing
with access to information related to the accessibility of sites of interest
(eg transportation, hotels, public buildings and so on), of importance for
the autonomous mobility of people with disabilities. This information will
be integrated in general databases for tourists and presented when requested
by the user. The

presentation and user-to-terminal interfaces will be adapted according
to available information about the users (adaptability) and modified during
interaction by monitoring their behaviour (adaptivity).

The work reported in this article has been made possible by the cooperative
activities of the Consortia of the above cited projects, to whom the author
is deeply indebted.